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A pioneering plan for a portable biodiesel manufacturing unit has collected the top prize in the 2010 eChallenge, a South Australian competition to encourage entrepreneurship.

The University of Adelaide's Entrepreneurs' Challenge (eChallenge) - run by The Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre (ECIC) - is an annual business planning contest that offers aspiring entrepreneurs the chance of global exposure as well as a share in $50,000 in cash and prizes.

eChallenge

Teams of between two and six people, including at least one tertiary-enrolled student in South Australia (including TAFE), compete in the eChallenge to develop a business plan for a new, previously unfunded concept.

Announced at the 2010 eChallenge Awards Dinner, the first prize was awarded to South Australian Biofuels, a team that has developed a portable biodiesel manufacturing unit which uses the latest in processing technology to produce diesel fuel.

The SA Biofuels unit utilises unique ultrasonic wave creators to boost the efficiency of production. One unit, which can produce about five million litres of biodiesel per year, will fit on a 6x4 trailer or the deck of a small truck.

Award-winning South Australian projects will be on display in a major project management showcase in Adelaide this week.

The annual Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM) Showcase is running this Friday, November 5, at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, Adelaide. The theme is Versatile Project Management - Adapting to Changing Community and Environment.

SA recently won two major awards at the National Australian Institute of Project Management Conference in Darwin. The Project Management Achievement Award-winning projects were: SA Health Medical Research Institute in the Organisational/Change Management category and SA Water/United Water/Kellogg Brown & Root/Jeffries Group in the Sustainable category.

Dean CalvertSmall business IT specialist Calvert Technologies is the only South Australian company among Australia’s fastest-growing computer resellers reported by Computer Reseller News (CRN).

Adelaide-based Calvert Technologies, which reported revenues of $2.75 million for the 2010 financial year, recorded a growth rate of more than 15 per cent, placing it at number 44 on the Fast List 2010 complied by CRN.

This success followed Calvert Technologies making the finals for Microsoft’s Small Business Specialist Partner of the Year award, at an event held on the Gold Coast in September.

2010 is proving an eventful year for the 15-year-old company, led by Dean Calvert, which recently moved to larger offices in the near-CBD suburb of Payneham, doubling its floor space and advertising three new jobs during August.

Alan GreigAfter running some of SA’s most successful software companies, IT entrepreneur Alan Greig has headed for the hills with his wife Jane Mitchell to run a restaurant in one of SA’s oldest buildings.

Alan and Jane, who has an extensive background in recruitment and professional development, have bought the historic Leonards Mill restaurant and function centre on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

The restaurant, which they are in the process of refurbishing before a planned pre-Christmas launch, is in a building that dates back to 1859, just 23 years after the colony of South Australia was founded.

Located in Second Valley, the bay was imaginatively named by SA’s visionary Colonel William Light who came across the sea-facing valley shortly after discovery Rapid Bay – which was the first valley!

With a professional pedigree that includes being CEO of SA-based software innovators Prophecy and Empower, Alan has accepted second fiddle position at Leonards Mill, where he will stock and manage the bar while Jane will be in charge of the overall operation.

Alan said the immediate challenge after getting the keys next month was to refurbish Leonards Mills. “We want to refresh it a bit,” he said. “Our intention is to brighten up the main bar and restaurant area and to make it feel a bit more contemporary, while keeping the heritage flavour.